Tag Archives: life

This death provided the capability for mankind to live real, complete whole life. Not only temporal existence, but a spiritual life never before experienced by man. Jesus lives.

In John 14:19-21 we find the Lord promising the disciples life is not over for them. In fact, His promise is that they will be fully and completely alive, they will live in a way that they cannot presently envision. In their lives, right then, that moment, that night, they saw life as honoring God and honoring their commitments before mankind through the heartbeat in their chest. Though the second part of that would not change, the first principle would change dramatically. From this night forward, the view of honoring God would transform from a physical building as a temple, to a personal bodily temple. Jesus is talking about an entirely new existence for mankind.
Jesus lived before man. Jesus is God. Jesus is love. Jesus is good. Jesus is righteousness. From this day forward, Jesus would instill the capability of these attributes in man by the indwelling Father, Son and Holy Spirit. My book, Knowing You Are Saved, discusses this on pages 228-230:

Those whom you see practicing righteousness must be of Christ. The word we see translated here [1 John 2:29] “doeth” does not give the actual use in this sentence justice. This phrase is constructed in such a way that the “doing” is the adjective. … indicates a continuing practice – a habit; something that marks the individual’s normal activity in life. We could say, everyone that is doing, or practicing. … John is saying, “If ye know (oida, in your heart, in your soul knowledge) that He (Jesus Christ) is righteous, ye know (ginōskō – in your mind, through experience, through learning) that every one that doeth (practices) righteousness is born of Him. (emphasis added) …This statement almost has a commonsensical flavor to it. You experience Christ’s righteousness in Christians because they are Christians. Those who have been born of Jesus Christ in faith practice or do this righteousness. In his commentary, Hiebert makes the point that the grammar here indicates a life-long effort. … Those who practice a lifetime of righteousness give others an understanding of Christ Jesus. … The overall characteristic of a life without God is still godlessness, even if there is a smattering or even a predominance of moral aptitudes, attitudes and activities.

Jesus gave His life so we could live our’s with Him, for Him, through Him, in Him. Not just Him, but the humility of Jesus also invites the Holy Spirit and ultimately does all things for the Father in Heaven by inviting Him as well. All three indwell the believer whose life then changes exponentially, dynamically, personally and experientially. Now, there is no longer just life, but a life fully alive in Christ! Our life with God indwelling us changes from a binary life, living in this body, serving in this body, to a multifaceted life to include serving from, to and through our body, our soul, our spirit, God’s spirit, God the Father and God the Son. Further, God provides all the strength, instruction, encouragement and power to accomplish His will in us. Go, live out the life Jesus died to provide you.

Can man be saved and fall back into sin through temptation? Absolutly, David did. Can man be brought back into fellowship with God after these sins? David and many others did this as well. Realistically, every sinner does this on a daily basis.

When we look at what God thinks of sin, we must immediately realize that breaking laws intentionally is just as severe to God as murdering someone. You earn the same wage regardless how hard you work at sin (Rom 6:23). Where some try to reason that contemplating adultry, although a sin is not as severe as the actual act (Matt 5:28). If any one sin results in separating us from God’s presence, all sins in God’s eyes are the same, they all disqualify us from His presence in Heaven. There are no varying jail terms, no negotiable deals with the prosecutor, only one punishment for a sinner. It may not seem fair to you, but God wants His kingdom pure. Quite frankly, we’d engineer a work to get in there if it were any different. This way, the only way is through the blood of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. That is the way God wants it (1 John 5:9-13).

How do we tell though? Is it up to us to tell? Are we supposed to diagnose the heart of man? Are we supposed to be able to determine whether or not someone is saved? The short answer is “yes” and the long answer takes much more room than is here. However, we can point to a few pieces of scripture that tell us how to see this and the first one is through Christ as a man, not using His power as God to see man’s heart. That tells us through His humanity alone He could tell, and we should too.

John 8:40-44 and 1 John 3:15 enlighten us greately in this. In John 8:40 the temple leaders and other antagonists are seeking to kill Jesus, a fellow Jew for telling the truth. This truth is something they do not want to hear. To quiet Him they attempt to assassinate his character (kill Him publicly) and they have sought to grab Him to kill him bodily. They hate the truth, they hate even brothers who bring the truth, since God is truth (1 Kings 17:24), they hate God by association with truth. And, they hate a brother (1 John 3:15) so they hate God. These actions tell who they belong too, the one person who hates both God and man equally and seeks to destroy both, Satan.

We can also look at a simple passage, Galatians 5:17-25 which details the fruits of the spirit. It also contains something else, a testimony of flesh dominant life. Some on this list are hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings and murders. All of these attitudes are exhibited by those in the temple in John 8:2-59. They hate Jesus because people follow Him (hatred, envyings), they lie to deceive and create dissention (variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies) and they seek to kill either His character or His person (murder).

Ladies and gentlemen, what do you DO? Not to gain salvation, but what is the evidence of your salvation? What do you DO AFTER your salvation? What evidence can one mount to testify of your conversion to Christ? Do you find yourself loving, joyful, peaceful, longsuffering, gentle, good, faithful, meek and tempered? Are these growing and the others fading? That’s the test. Go with God, grow with God.

Perspective often defines how we live. If we are given to pleasing man, we engineer an existence without conflict and full of compromise. If our desire is to please God, we will present His truths to the world regardless of the consequence. This is Jesus, and frankly, every biblical prophet’s attitude. Uncompromising truth, that is what God speaks in and through His word.

Are you good enough for the church, for service to God, for friendship among spiritual leaders, for Heaven? Do you come from the right background, is your bloodline acceptable, are you in agreement with self-proclaimed societal leadership today? Do you have the skills, are you properly trained, are you open to change as society changes?

Interesting, these are all the types of questions we ask our presidential candidates today if they are conservatives. I find it very interesting that they seldom ask these questions of liberal candidates. One question I find completely without intelligence is to ask a Christian candidate if they can lead America and believe in the Bible. It is empty of knowledge of our history, wanting of understanding in biblical teaching, dishonest and above all discriminatory and hypocritical. Those are strong words but the truth is that it displays a complete lacking of understanding of Christ and the things of Christ as well as our founding documents, fathers and purposes as a nation.

However, candidates who may receive this ridiculous type of inquiry should feel they are in good company. In Matthew 7 and 8 this is exactly what the Jewish leadership asked Jesus. They looked around at the world, ascertained He was not consistent with their personal goals and asked Him how He expected to be taken seriously let alone lead Israel. He was only a carpenter, not taught in the proper places, not from a proper blood line, did not have the right societal ideas, was not in with the right crowds. He simply did not experience life like everyone else on earth therefore He could not be God, the Son of God, or the Messiah. ISN’T THAT THE POINT!

Jesus, being from Heaven, knowing where He originated and knowing His place was completely comfortable being unique. His home, just as is every Christian’s is not here. His home is in Heaven. His concerns are not to go along to get along in society, but to save mankind from sin by dying on the cross for the whole world. He has a wholly different compass that guides his way in life and it is not dependent upon the material existence in the world, but the spiritual existence He anticipates enjoying in Heaven. Yet he was tempted in all ways like man (Heb 14:15).

Christian, can you say the same about yourself? Is all you do here in the world ultimately focused upon pleasing your Father in Heaven?

We struggle to think that God might give us a life that is less than happy, less than healthy, less than exciting or less than fulfilling compared to lives in the world. We think we have to be content in all things when Christ should drive our contentedness. We think with Christ we must have perfect health when we should permit God to determine our challenges. We think we must seek excitement when God should be our portion. We believe fulfillment is born in our experience on earth be it magnanimity, self-indulgence or anything in between when Christ should fulfill us. Religious people think in terms of works, church attendance, morals, personal success, health or wealth. Our challenge is to see Christ as our all in all (1 Cor 12:6). Our challenge is to make God our portion (Psalm 119:57; 142:5; Eccl 2:10; Lam 3:24).

A few questions we should answer personally are, do we seek another’s approval or recognition in our worship? Are we worshipping Christ because someone else is? Have we stopped attending church because of other people? Are we concerned that we will not be happy if we have to keep God’s rules? Do we depend upon popular religious leader’s approval to give our faith, beliefs and life validity? If we do any of these things, Christ is not enough, our faith is not in Him but in an existential existence.

We expect to experience being with Christ when being with Christ is the experience. It is rather like the person searching for their car keys saying, “I’ve looked everywhere.” I tell my children, “No you haven’t, because you have not looked where your keys are yet.”

People often look everywhere for Christ but they fail to look in the one place where He has always been Heaven, a place of purity, a place of holiness, a place of perfection and sinlessness. Heaven is where everything begins. God issues all His decrees from Heaven and sends all His servants from His throne. Look up before you look out among the world.

Don’t look for miracles, don’t look for a popular religious leader’s approval, don’t look any farther than to the things of Heaven, to the word of God, to preaching of God’s word. Look for Christ and let Him be who He is, what He is and submit to what He wants. Look to give Him your service, not to get service from Him.

God entrusts us with truth in order that we might share those truths, not hide them. One of the smartest scientists in our history knew this. We would do well to heed his wisdom. One truth we must face is that people enjoy ignorance and apathy. Many practice dogmatism in ignorance. They presume to press upon God a morality not represented in scripture. The most heinous of these is that there are many ways to Heaven, that it is arrogant to claim Christians have the only answer. The hard truth is that real Christians have the only answer. The problem is finding real Christians in the fog of the pretending ones.

In our world today there are great truths that are very difficult to face. Honestly, I want to believe that the normal every day people of other countries are like you and I, just trying to scrape out a living everyday living. Only the religious and political leaders are the ones who push so hard on their pet projects and press to exert control over the masses. We want to believe that every day people are in essence just good people caught up in bad situations. The normal people are simply caught up in and identified with the zealousness and wickedness of certain leaders. We think that like the everyday Germans were identified with Hitler, many are evil by association not in actuality. However, when we look at the more broad testimony of man and consider we have a choice to follow or not, we realize everyone has hard truths to face.

Hard truths are never simple, but we are the complicators. They are often direct facts we have to deal with. People who care the most for us usually share these truths, they seldom sugar coat it but more frequently lean on the more personal relationship, the history of care and concern, the deep wells of strength developed in each relationship. Because they are closer, they are supposed to be able to be truthful.

On the other side of the spectrum, hard truths also come from individuals you do not know well. These are harder to take because we quickly become defensive. Equally, they can be easier to accept because the person has no other motivation than to be truthful.

However you look at it, truth is often very hard to accept, especially when it challenges our personal desires, long held beliefs and our personal common sense. Truth is tough to take.

This is where Jesus was in John 6:59-62. He is trying to tell His disciples and those present in the synagogue that He understands the words being spoken and the concepts He is communicating are difficult. Jesus’ mission was never about pleasing or appeasing man, but to save mankind by pleasing and appeasing the Father as a man. The hard truth is that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. The hard truth is that you must make Him a part of your life. The hard truth is that you must change to be like Jesus. Those are hard truths. Accept Jesus, live through Him, let Him change you. You might be surprised.

John 5:24 is very clear, if we believe we have eternal life. These two concepts are unfathomable for man, but simple for God. On Palm Sunday Christ was ushered into Jerusalem as a new king with pomp and circumstance. But His kingdom was not of this world. We at first accept salvation, then expect Him to be what we envision.

The only way to eternal life is through Jesus Christ the Son of God and His shed blood on the cross.

Man ‘s belief is agreeing to the concept. God’s belief is whole hearted trust. Man quickly skips over John 14:15 – if ye love me keep my commandments. Man ignores James 2:20 – Faith without works is dead. Man misses Romans 12:1-2 – our bodies are a living sacrifice which is our reasonable service. Man misses 2 Corinthians 3:18 – changed into His image from glory to glory. Man “accepts” Christ as savior, then seldom reads the scriptures, attends worship sporadically, and never gives himself and his livelihood over to God without reservation. But when God is in man, he must produce for the Kingdom. Man should not be mere man any more, but a solider, a servant, a saint of God.

Man equally misses the purpose in eternal life. Life with God as opposed to life without Him. Life with God is in His presence, worshipping Him, adoring Him, honoring Him, glorying in Him and enjoying life to its fullest with Him for eternity. Man often turns eternal life into an extension of physical life, exploring the depths of the cosmos or mountain tops as an angel. Heaven is a place where God resides. It is His Kingdom. A kingdom is a busy place. Saints will have responsibilities some great, some small. However, all things will occur in perfection, without pain or suffering nor illness, in the perfection of the Kingdom of God. The perfect love of God will dominate in Heaven where the will of man dominates on earth.

How do you view your salvation? Do you see it as something inspiring you to change and achieve for God on earth? What are you doing for Him?

God’s love is displayed in the cross where He gave himself. God’s love is displayed in the blood He shed for us. God’s love is displayed above all in the sins He took upon himself to cleanse us, providing redemption for the whole world (1 Jn 2:2).

God’s love provides light to His creation. God carefully planned and gave light for everything He created in Genesis 1-2. He first created light to sustain life. He is the Light of the World (Jn 8:12). He is the light of life (Jn 1:4). The Lord is our light and our salvation (Ps 27:1). He is the light of men showing us the one true God (Jn 1:4).

God’s love provides redemption. Justification by God’s pure grace. We deserve judgment, but are redeemed instead because a loving God submitted himself to death on the cross for our salvation (Rom 3:24; Phil 2:8). His blood shed on the cross redeems us (Eph 1:7).

God’s love provides salvation (Ps 9:14). God’s power gives us salvation from the world if we only believe in him (Rom 1:16). Our belief provides righteousness, when we confess our sin we receive His salvation (Rom 10:10).

God’s love provides eternal life. Whoever believes in Him has eternal life (Jn 3:15). Some do not think they are worth saving. But God loves us so much that even knowing sinful living, He gave himself for us (Rom 5:8). Where sin ruled life and gave us death and fear of the afterlife, God’s grace gave us His Son, Jesus the Christ who gave himself freely, a perfect sacrifice for imperfect man. Where there was death because of sin, love provides life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:21).

God’s love is perfect. It is more complete, deeper and more active than any love man can understand. God is a God of love, peace, and comfort (2 Cor 13:11). His love saved you (Is 63:9; 2 Thes 2:10).

2017 Vacation Bible School

Hosted by Pastor Tim Silcott 7-11 August. Come join us all.

Knowing You Are Saved

Pastor Tim's new book describes great assurances of salvation in 1 John. Every Christian wonders at some point if they are saved. John writes in vibrant, personal and intimate terms exactly how we can know we are saved.